Stolen West Bank artefacts displayed at Israel museum

Israeli workers conduct an excavation work the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, on 28 February 2018 [Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency]

Israel has exhibited artefacts stolen from the occupied West Bank at a Jerusalem museum, an Israeli newspaper reported Monday.

Twenty artefacts – out of an estimated 40,000 confiscated in 1967 – are currently on display, Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

The purloined artefacts reportedly include a number of ancient coins and bowls.

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For the last four decades, the artefacts remained in the Israeli authorities’ possession “with no means of ascertaining their provenance”, the paper reported.

Palestine’s official WAFA news agency condemned the looting of Palestinian antiquities.

The display of stolen artefacts, the news agency asserted today, “violates international law… which prohibits an occupying power from… carrying out archaeological excavations in occupied territory”.

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